Transfer mechanisms and bucket carriers designed automatically to move larger caliber ammunition projectiles in and out of storage magazines have been developed for use in various military vehicles. An example of one such system of transfer mechanisms and bucket carriers is described in the '338 patent. That system is intended to handle only ammunition projectiles, since the bag propellant charges used to propel those projectiles conventionally were loaded manually in such a system. Such manual loading of bag propellant charges is typical of most conventional large caliber weapons systems.
The planned introduction of advanced artillery systems calls for the use of a fully automated ammunition handling capability including handling of the propellant charges. For one of these advanced systems, the propellant charges will be molded, combustible containers filled with either ball or stick propellant. An illustration of these new propellant charge modules, referred to as Modular Artillery Charge Systems (MACS), is shown schematically in FIG. 1 and is designated by the numeral 10. The MAC modules each include a combustible case body 12, a combustible case coating 14, and combustible case caps 20, 22. Individual powder grains 18 are contained within case body 12 and case caps 20, 22, arrayed around a central core 24 bounded by adaptor cups 26, 28 and covers 30, 32.
As one skilled in the art would appreciate, in operating a large caliber gun such as a self-propelled Howitzer, a selective number of the individual propellant charges 10 would be used, depending upon the type of projectile, range, etc. required. The MACS transfer mechanism then ideally must be able to selectively transfer into or access from, the storage magazine any single charge, or multiple charges up to all the charges in the carrier. Moreover, space and weight concerns for an automated gun supply system may necessitate a common transfer mechanism to serve a projectile storage magazine on one side of a common conveyor and a MACS module storage magazine on the other side.
However, known transfer mechanisms are configured for handling a single elongated projectile from magazine carriers such as described in the '388 patent. Whereas each carrier in a projectile, magazine stores only one projectile it would be desirable and more space efficient to store multiple MACS modules in a single carrier. This disclosure describes the mechanization of a propellant charge carrier suitable for use with advanced MACS and further describes a multi-compartment bucket particularly suited for use with such a carrier.